Gemma Doyle, a transplanted Englishwoman, has returned to the quaint town of West London on Cape Cod to manage her Great Uncle Arthur's Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. The shop--located at 222 Baker Street--specializes in the Holmes canon and pastiche, and is also the home of Moriarty the cat. When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine containing the first Sherlock Homes story hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne (who runs the adjoining Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room) set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body.
The highly perceptive Gemma is the police’s first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman's suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance. But when Gemma and Jayne accidentally place themselves at a second murder scene, it's a race to uncover the truth before the detectives lock them up for good.
Fans of Sherlock Holmes will delight in the sleuthing duo of Gemma and Jayne in Elementary, She Read, the clever and captivating series debut by nationally bestselling author Vicki Delany.

First Line

The Great Detective eyed me.

Here is what I thought

Gemma Doyle moved from England to West London, Mass. to help her great uncle Arthur. His in his nineties and is not one to settle down but he couldn’t help buying a building when it was on Baker Street because he is a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. It wasn’t doing very good because he was just selling the Sherlock Holmes cannons, but when Gemma came she realized that it would make more money if she stocked all the retellings and even books in that era as well as memorabilia. She didn’t have to like all that goofy stuff to know it would sell. Gemma runs that store and is also partners with her friend who runs the store next door called Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room. Her uncle Arthur is hardly ever home as the travel bug is in his veins so he leaves the running of the store to Gemma.

Gemma has an eye for details and can tell when things are out of place in her store and she found a magazine that looked a lot like a rare magazine that could be worth a lot of money. When she finds the owner, she finds her dead and herself as the murder suspect. Gemma and her Sherlock like abilities is not always a good thing because she seemed to know way too much about what happened and doesn’t know when to shut up. 🙂

The detectives on the case are Ryan, whom Gemma has a past with, and Louise, who takes an immediate disliking to Gemma which doesn’t do her any good because Ryan gets taken off the case for knowing Gemma. While Louise is determined to make a case against Gemma, she must do her best to find the killer.

I really liked Gemma and her gift for details, it also cracked me up because she kept digging herself a hole. Her friend Jayne would be like shut up…lol. I liked all the side characters and I have a feeling it’s going to be fun seeing what will happen with Gemma as the series progresses.

The author pulled one over on me and I was totally surprised by who the murderer was though I feel like I should have known…lol. Great mystery!

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